Hangzhou Food

Hangzhou cuisine is the representative of Zhejiang Cuisine, one of China’s eight cuisines. And it wins reputation for freshness, tenderness, softness, smoothness of its dishes with mellow fragrance. A great poet of Song Dynasty once praised it as follows: there’s no food that can compare with the Hangzhou cuisine.

Famous dishes like West Lake Sour Fish, Dongpo Pork, Longjing Shrimp Meat, Jiaohua Young Chickens, Steam Rice Flower and Pork Wrapped by Lotus Leaves, Braised Bamboo Shoots and Lotus Root Powder are widely known and popular among both local people and tourists.

Hangzhou Featured Food:

Chestnut Porridge With Sweet Scented Osmanthus

Main ingredients：Chestnut porridge

Features：The porridge has varied and distinct colors and is filled with crisp chestnuts. The soup is thick and the sweet-scented osmanthus has a pleasant smell. It should not be served too sweet.

Legend：According to the legend, during the Tang Dynasty, on the night of the Mid-autumn Festival, when Chang'er, the immortal on the moon, saw the view of the West Lake in Hangzhou in the moonlight, she could not help but to dance gracefully. As a result, her dance shook the osmanthus seeds one by one off the osmanthus trees in the moon. At night, the monk Deming of the Linyin Temple was cooking chestnut porridge in the kitchen when he saw osmanthus seeds dancing all over the sky and numberless fragrant seeds falling into the porridge. The next day, when the monks ate the chestnut porridge, they greatly praised it. Therefore, Deming picked up the osmanthus seeds scattered in the courtyard and planted them on a mountain opposite the temple. On the next M

Beggar Chicken

Ingredients: Fresh and tender chicken

Features: The chicken is white, fragrant and tender. It has a soft taste and will not be stuck between your teeth.

Legend: According to the legend, in ancient times there was a beggar who wandered destitute to the Yangtze River Delta. One day, he fell to the ground because of hunger and cold. A fellow sufferer stole a small hen for him, but realized that they did not have a stove to cook it in. At this point, they saw a bonfire close to them and came up a good idea. They wrapped the chicken with mud and put it into the bonfire to be baked. After a while, they opened the mud pie and unexpectedly found that the chickens feathers had fallen off and that the chicken tasted extremely well. Later this cooking technique spread into restaurants, and the dish finally became a famous part of the Hangzhou cuisine.

Dongpo Pork

Main ingredients: Marbled meat.The dish is red and bright in color with a distinct shape. It tastes oily but not greasy and looks glamorous but not vulgar. The meat is refreshing and smooth. It can be called suitable for people of all ages.

West Lake Fish With Vinegar Sauce

The dish is red and bright in color. The flesh is tender, delicate with sweetness amid sourness. The flavor lingers long after swallowing.